


Late Registration

by heyjupiter



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, M/M, Science Boyfriends, Science Bros, Science Bros Week 2018
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-03
Updated: 2018-08-03
Packaged: 2019-06-21 00:45:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15545865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heyjupiter/pseuds/heyjupiter
Summary: Peter waits until the last minute to ask Tony to sign his school internship paperwork, and it leads to some awkward questions."Oh--no, that's okay, I just need the school credit.""Are you kidding? Word gets out about SI offering unpaid internships, I'll never hear the end of it, starting with the bloggers and ending with Pepper. Where's the other form?"





	Late Registration

**Author's Note:**

> This is for Science Bros Week 2018 prompt #7, late. (And, fittingly...I'm posting it late. Thanks to everyone who organized it! It's been a fun week, or, uh, weeks!)
> 
> This fic is also in honor of [this tweet suggesting all future Spider-Man movies be named after Kanye albums](https://twitter.com/daviduzumeri/status/975404030695374848?lang=en).

"Um, Mr. Stark?"

"Yeah?"

"Um, before I go, I was wondering if you would sign this? For school?"

Tony laughed. "What is this, you need volunteer hours or something? It's still summer."

"No, it's so I can get school credit? For my internship? And actually, school starts tomorrow, I was supposed to turn this in like a week ago but, uh, stuff kept coming up?"

"Tomorrow? Where _does_ the time go."

Peter shrugged and said, "I think we spent a lot of it trying to upgrade web fluid?"

"That was rhetorical," Tony said. He studied the form Peter had handed him. "Internship, huh? What, did you have Happy sign it last year?"

"Um. No, sophomores aren't actually eligible to get school credit for internships, so…."

"What? That seems a little unfair. You should have told me, I bet I could have gotten the principal to count it," Tony said confidently. 

"No, that's okay, I'm...this is fine."

Tony shrugged and skimmed the form. 

"I already filled it out, you just need to sign it. There." Peter pointed.

"It also says there's an attached form if you're receiving a stipend? Where's that?" Tony shook the single sheet of paper. 

Peter blushed. "Oh--no, that's okay, I just need the school credit."

"Are you kidding? Word gets out about SI offering unpaid internships, I'll never hear the end of it, starting with the bloggers and ending with Pepper. Where's the other form?"

"No, it's really fine."

"Peter, do you know how much money SI makes? We can definitely afford to pay you. Seriously, if you don't give me the form I'll go get it from the school myself. Well--I'll probably have an assistant go get it, but honestly, it'll save us all time if you just do it."

"I just don't think I should take money for being Spider-Man? That doesn't feel...right."

"Well, you're not. You're taking money for other work that you do for Stark Industries, which is a Fortune 500 company. You can save it for college."

Reluctantly, Peter opened up his backpack and rummaged around in it, producing a crumpled sheet of paper.

Tony smoothed it out and said, "See? You're definitely worth a thousand dollars a week."

"N-no, Mr. Stark, the maximum stipend for the internship program is--is a thousand dollars a _semester_."

"What? That's nothing. That's gotta be less than minimum wage."

"Well--it's an internship? So it's supposed to be more for the school credit...and the experience?"

"I'm giving you back pay for last semester so you can get a new backpack. How long have you had that one?"

"Um, not that long."

"Really? It looks like it's been through hell and back. Or is this like a hipster thing? Like distressed jeans? Am I out of touch? No, that can't be right, I'm pretty sure your backpack is wrong."

"Well--I felt bad asking May to buy me another one," Peter admitted.

"So ask _me_ , Peter. I don't know if you heard, but I'm personally _literally_ a billionaire, let alone the company's assets."

"I didn't--it's not a big deal," Peter said. He looked deeply uncomfortable. "Could you please just sign the form? May will be mad if I'm late for dinner."

"Okay, I know you have to go, but wait here one minute…" Tony took the form with him to keep Peter from leaving and dug around in a storage closet until he found what he was looking for. He handed Peter back his signed internship paperwork and a branded Stark Industries backpack. "Call it a signing bonus."

"Oh, wow, thanks Mr. Stark!" Peter said. "This is so nice."

"If something happens to it, just let me know, okay? We've got a whole box of them leftover from some MIT event. You don't need to go fishing backpacks out of the dumpster or wherever you got this one."

"It wasn't _in_ a dumpster," Peter said, which led Tony to assume that it had been dumpster-adjacent.

"Whatever. Have a good first day of school. I'll see you later for your internship."

"Thanks, Mr. Stark!" Peter slung his disgusting old backpack over his shoulder, cradled his new backpack under his arm, and left Tony in the lab with the crumpled stipend form, feeling alone and slightly confused. He checked the time; Pepper and Rhodey were still at work, but he thought Bruce would be available to help Tony figure this out.

"FRIDAY, where's Bruce?"

"Dr. Banner is in the kitchen," the AI informed him.

"That sounds right."

"It _is_ right. Dr. Banner is definitely currently located in the kitchen."

Tony shook his head; he was still working on getting FRIDAY to understand some of his turns of phrase. He headed to the kitchen, where he discovered that FRIDAY was, indeed, right.

"Hey, trophy wife, what are you making?"

Bruce looked up from the berries he was carefully arranging on top of a dish and smiled. "Well, I was trying my hand at a trifle, but it's not coming out quite like Mary Berry's."

"It looks pretty good to me. God, I know I was skeptical at first, but I'm so glad you started getting into the Great British Bake Off."

"You should really up your PBS pledge," Bruce said.

"Hey, that reminds me. Peter asked me to fill out paperwork for his internship, and he was really weird about it."

"How so?"

"Well, it has an optional stipend, and he doesn't want it. He said it was weird to take money for being Spider-Man."

Bruce shrugged. "I get that," he said.

"The stipend was only a thousand dollars for the whole semester. That's like, nothing."

"It's not nothing."

"You know what I mean."

"I know what _you_ mean, but I get why Peter would feel uncomfortable about it."

"What? It's not like he's out there charging people when he helps them with muggers and stuff. It's coming from SI, which can obviously afford it. The internship isn't _just_ Spider-Man stuff, anyway."

"That's true. He's a great lab assistant."

"And he can definitely use the money. Have you noticed his backpack?"

"No?"

"I'm pretty sure it's literally from the garbage."

"Sometimes people throw away perfectly usable stuff. Americans are really wasteful."

"Okay, sure, sometimes, but trust me, that backpack deserved the trash."

"Okay," Bruce agreed mildly. He really wasn't responding how Tony had hoped he would. He'd have to talk to Pepper when she got back from the office. _She'd_ be outraged at the low stipend, Tony was sure of it.

Tony reached out and picked a blueberry off the top of the trifle. "Anyway, he takes the tech I give him. That stuff is worth way more than a thousand dollars."

Bruce sighed and carefully replaced the blueberry. "Peter might not actually realize that, and you probably shouldn't mention it."

"But I want him to have it. And he's doing a lot of good with it."

"I know."

"So why won't he take this internship money?"

"He'd probably take it, he just didn't want to _ask_ for it."

"Well, that's stupid," Tony blurted out. Then he thought for a second about Bruce, who also tended to be very awkward and cagey about accepting gifts. 

Bruce shrugged. "Tony, I don't think you...ah...hmm."

"Say it, Banner."

"I just don't know if you understand how...non-rich people think about money?"

"Well--what do you mean?" Tony asked. He understood that most people had less money than he did, and that most of them wanted more. He thought that was the point of most charities. 

"I mean, you said a thousand dollars was nothing. Do you think Peter's ever had a thousand dollars?"

"What?"

"What?"

They stared at each other for a moment, and then Bruce laughed. "I'm sure he hasn't, Tony, not to his own name, anyway. So...it's a big deal to Peter, even if he knows it's not a big deal to you. And it's...embarrassing and it's awkward. Like, what if you changed your mind and wanted it back?"

"I wouldn't…" Tony started to say, and stopped. Because he wouldn't, with the money--but he had done that, with the suit. Which he'd thought was for the kid's own good, but clearly Tony didn't understand what was good for him.

Bruce nodded. "I know you wouldn't, but it's hard not to think that way...but I think more importantly, he wants to be useful to you. He wants you to respect him. He doesn't want you to think he just wants...stuff from you."

Bruce finished his little speech, sucked in a breath, and carried the elaborate dessert he'd made over to the fridge.

"Oh," Tony said.

"Hasn't anyone ever…" Bruce trailed off.

"Most people are pretty happy to get stuff from me, to be honest," Tony said. "Is--uh, to be clear, because I'm not always...we're talking about you now, right?"

Bruce laughed again. "Oh, well, I--I think I've adapted okay to the Tony Stark trophy wife lifestyle, but--it was an adjustment, for sure."

"Wait, you know I was just kidding about that trophy wife thing, right?"

"What? You don't think I'm pretty?" Bruce pouted.

"You're very pretty," Tony said, and kissed his ridiculous lips. "But you're even smarter than you are pretty."

Bruce smiled. "You're not so bad yourself."

"Well, tell that to my intern."

"I will. Hey, can I see that internship stipend form?" Bruce asked.

"Sure. It was at the bottom of Peter's trash backpack, though," Tony replied, handing over the crumpled form.

Bruce pulled his reading glasses out of his pocket and looked at it. "Yeah," he said. "You should give this to Peter, but send him a letter with clear terms. That it's nonrefundable, that it's to cover transportation and supplies, that it's not taxable…."

"You're sure?" Tony asked.

"I mean, it wouldn't hurt to have a lawyer check it, but have you ever seen my CV? It's hard to find an internship, assistantship, or fellowship I didn't have at some point. I know about stipends."

"I didn't mean about the terms and conditions, I just meant...you know. He said he didn't want it?"

"Since when do you listen to what people don't want?" Bruce asked, but there was no bite to it.

"...fair point," Tony acknowledged.

"He'll be happy to have it, I'm sure," Bruce said. "It's just...Tony, I think maybe the other thing you don't understand is how rare it is for someone to just give something with no strings attached."

"This has a string attached. I think I have to fax this string to the school. Who even sends faxes anymore?"

"You know what I mean, though, right?" Bruce asked. "That's...that's what took me awhile to figure out."

"Oh, I'm tying a string to you, too," Tony said, wrapping an arm around Bruce's shoulders.

Bruce laughed and leaned into him. "Just give him a chance to get used to you and your ridiculous generosity."

"Ridiculous?" Tony said. "I think our PBS pledge already single-handedly paid for a new season of Great British Bake Off to be imported to the US and you're calling _me_ ridiculous?"

"Ridiculously generous!" Bruce said. "It's a compliment. Now go fax in that internship paperwork before you miss the deadline and have to invent a scholarship or something."

"Invent a scholarship, there's an idea."

"Save it for his senior year."

"Fine." Tony took back the stipend form and said, "Ugh, it'll take a minute. I need an intern to fill out this paperwork for me...what a paradox."

"The trifle will be ready when you're finished."

"Dessert before dinner? What'd I do to deserve that?"

Bruce batted his eyelashes and said, in a husky voice, "Just trying to be a good trophy wife and keep my sugar daddy happy." Then he positively howled with laughter.

"Alright," Tony grumbled, as Bruce continued to laugh.

After Bruce finally caught his breath, he pulled a lump of dough out of a bowl on the counter and said, "Or if you can wait, I'm making pizza from Paul's dough recipe."

"Okay, yeah, I'm definitely sending PBS more money after I finish up Peter's internship stuff."


End file.
